More than 700 civil servants earn six-figure salaries
MORE than 700 civil servants, officials and “quangocrats” earned more than £100,000 last year.
An analysis of official figures by The Daily Telegraph found that the number earning six-figure salaries has risen by nearly a fifth over the past two years.
The number of officials earning more than the Prime Minister’s £142,500 salary has risen by a quarter to 332, with the highest earner paid £750,000. More than 200 had pay rises despite a cap by the Government and deep public spending cuts under the Tories.
Andrew Bridgen, a Conservative MP, said: “It’s clear that the Paymaster General needs to get a grip on the culture of senior civil servants awarding themselves six-figure salaries.
“It seems extraordinary that over 300 civil servants in Whitehall should earn more than the Prime Minister and these figures do not even include the thousands of local government officers earning six-figure salaries.”
The highest earner was Simon Kirby, chief executive of High Speed 2 (HS2), with a salary of £750,000. Jim Crawford, a managing director at HS2, has a salary of £395,000, while 32 of its other officials earn more than £100,000.
At NHS England, the body which runs the health service, 23 officials earn more than the Prime Minister. The highest paid is Paul Baumann, the organisation’s chief financial officer, who earned £210,000 last year and has a pension pot worth nearly £500,000.
Details of the high earners have emerged as the NHS draws up a formal list of hospital departments to be shut in an effort to ease the worst financial crisis in the health service’s history.
At the Ministry of Defence more than 100 officials earned over £100,000, while at the Department of Work and Pensions the total stood at 57.
HMRC, heavily criticised for its “appalling” customer service, has more than 35 officials earning over £100,000.
The two highest earning mandarins are John Manzoni, chief executive of the civil service, who earned £320,000, and Peter Wilkinson, head of passen- ger services at the Department for Transport, who earned £260,000.
In addition to large salaries, many civil servants and government agency officials received bonuses, pay-offs and significant pension contributions.
John Clarke, the chief executive of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, was paid £593,584, including nearly £160,000 in bonuses and £103,000 in pension benefits.
Stephen Dauncey, former director of finance and business services at Highways England, was awarded a £95,000 pay-off after voluntary redundancy, pushing his total remuneration up to £230,368. Mark Sedwill, permanent secretary at the Home Office, the Prime Minister’s previous brief, took home a £20,000 bonus, £1,400 in benefits in kind and £102,000 in pension benefits on top of his £185,000 salary.
A Cabinet Office spokesman said that the Government needs to “attract, recruit, retain and motivate highly skilled individuals”, adding that “reforms to the civil service workforce have saved £2.8 billion since 2009-10”.